google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday December 10, 2020 David Distenfeld

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Dec 10, 2020

Thursday December 10, 2020 David Distenfeld

 Greetings!

The themers for today's puzzle are word pairs: the first an anagram of the second, the second an animal of some sort:

17A. *Bovine that doesn't waste words?: TERSE STEER.  He doesn't chew his cud twice ...

 24A. *Dog that had a few too many?: LOOPED POODLE.  Here's lickin' at ya kids. Hic! 

 34A. *Sheep that can't see over the pasture wall?: WEE EWE.  She's so wee that we can't even see her.

 41A. *Insect that caught some rays?: TAN ANT. I thought this guy was one of the latest regenerations of Dr. Who. Here he is with his sonic screwdriver, a must have for MacGyvers. I betcha Anon-T would love to add one of those to his toolkit!


48A. *Weasel-family critter wearing clothes?: GARBED BADGER. Badgers, like skunks, are members of the family Mustelidae and distant relatives of 18D.


And  the reveal: 60A. Leave one's car unlawfully ... or where you might expect to find the creatures in the answers to starred clues?: DOUBLE PARK. This is one of the many ways to park illegally, but perhaps one of the potentially most serious, especially if the blocked vehicle belongs to an on call EMT.  I get the DOUBLE in the first half of the answer, but I'm MIA on PARK.  Ants  and badgers perhaps, but not steers and poodles (except maybe on a leash).

 The rest of the clues:

Across:

1. Arizona locale for MLB spring training fans: MESA . And here's where the fans sit, in Hohokam Stadium. Named for the Hohokam Indians, a tribe indigenous to the Mesa area. They were an agricultural society, known for building extensive networks of irrigation canals. They prospered in this area until their civilization was destroyed by a great drought in the mid 15th century.









 

5. __ breath: bouquet filler: BABY'S.

10. Human rights lawyer Clooney: AMAL.  Rosemary's niece-in-law.

14. Enthusiastic: AVID.

15. Crush the final: ACE IT.

16. Nosh: BITE.

19. Class struggle?: EXAM.

20. Court events: TRIALS.

21. Glitz: GLAM.

23. Central Park tree: ELM

27. Approach evening: LATEN.  I thought this was a language?

30. __ Canadiens: Montréal team: LES.

31. Stenographer's stat: WPM.

32. Big Ten sch.: OSU.

33. "I __ had!": WAS.

37. Choice cut: SIRLOIN.  Shouldn't that be "Soreloin?" Ouch!

40. Fair treat: CORN DOG.

42. Scatter, as seed: SOW.

43. Having one sharp: ING.  IIRC the same an an A Flat. CSO to any musicians out there ...?

44. Morning hrs.: AMS

45. Downed: ATE

46. Tests for future OBs: MCATS.

52. 2019 event for Pinterest, briefly: IPO.  Well picture that!

53. Legal wrong: TORT.  Scrumptious...

54. Ultimatum words: OR ELSE.

58. Border: ABUT.  Politer synonyms: tush, keister, derriere.

62. Mudville number: NINE.

63. Exclusive, as a community: GATED.  Also an internet routing protocol, for all you Linux geeks.

64. Pop singer Sands: EVIE.

65. "Meet the Press" moderator: TODD.

66. Perfect places: EDENS.  In Xwds EDENS are always depicted as "perfect", but I think there was a snake in the grass there (or in a tree maybe).

67. Talk back to: SASS.  When you're a little kid this is a great way to get your ivories cleaned with Ivory soap.

Down:

1. "The Simpsons" creator Groening: MATT.  Has anybody seen this? I watched it only when it was used to close the old Tracey Ullman Show and then lost track of it. I'm familiar with a lot of the characters though because the show is virally mnemic, especially in Xwd puzzles. I hear it's pretty funny.


2. "Did you __?!": EVER.  I haven't lived long enough yet.

3. iPhone assistant: SIRI.  Ssh. I hear she might be listening!

4. Source of website revenue: AD SALE.

5. Low voice: BASSO.  Very profundo.

6. Take steps: ACT.

7. Disco trio with a Grammy Legend Award: BEE GEES.  Another CSO to Anon-T.

8. Cedes the floor: YIELDS.

9. Guitar band: STRAP.  CSO to HuskerGary who told the funny story about his guitar strap breaking while he was performing at a friend's wedding?

10. Prez on a penny: ABE.

11. Eclectic art technique: MIXED MEDIA.

12. In the least: AT ALL.  Or a bar order, particularly for a double shot of whiskey?

13. "I wanna!": LEMME.

18. SpaceX CEO Musk: ELON. see 48A.

22. Links machine: MOWER.  Our lawn tractor is on the blink and Dw has been keeping the lawn trimmed with a hand mower, as YT is now "too busy" to do it.

25. Have in mind: PLAN.  IMHO planning is a lost art.

26. Links event: OPEN.  I don't watch much sports on TV, but I do find watching golf to be very relaxing.

27. Without a clue: LOST.  Welcome to a large and growing group.

28. Bangkok locale: ASIA.

29. React to a missed exit: TURN AROUND.

33. Clever one: WIT.

34. "Holy moly!": WOW.  A mincing of the phrase "holy Moses", popularized in the 1940s by the character Captain Marvel in the DC Comics' comic book of the same name.

35. Habit: WONT.

36. Breakfast fare: EGGS.

38. Moussaka meat: LAMB.  See 34A.  The absolutely best thing to make with eggplants. We had a bumper crop this year.

39. Start: ONSET.

40. Like some dorms: COED.

42. Law: STATUTE.

45. Visiting Vietnam, say: ABROAD.

46. Scant: MERE.  Also a French Mama.

47. Breakfast fare: CREPES.  46D's make them a lot.

48. Colossal: GIANT.  I read recently that some archaeologists now believe that Goliath wasn't nearly as tall as his press agents claimed him to be.

49. Sitcom set in a H.S. science class: AP BIO.  Didn't have these back in the day. Did take advanced biology with Mr. Pottler though.  Great teacher.

50. Duck: DODGE.

51. Desired medals: GOLDS.

55. Etna output: LAVA.

56. Hindu titles: SRIS.

57. Scrapes (out): EKES.  As opposed to "eeks", freaks out.

59. "Ideas worth spreading" conference: TED.  Well, some ideas anyway.

61. Folds of music: BEN.

Here's the grid:


I thank you all for coming, and as this is my first outing I thank CC for inviting me to the party, and for MalMan, Moe, TTP, and Anon-T for keeping me from drowning in the puns bowl.
 
waseeley, but you can call me Bill.


Notes from C.C.:

1) I'm very pleased to tell you that Bill (waseeley) has agreed to join our team. He'll share the Thursday blogging duties with Joseph. Here's Bill, whose grandson Ray is from Harbin, China.
 


2) Here is Ðave, who has corrected many mistakes in my blog write-ups over the years. This picture was taken yesterday. Tell us why you start with a special Ð!



64 comments:

Wilbur Charles said...

So, who's "this guy" with the sonic screwdriver?

Then you have the local Mafia that triple park.

Duh, Baseball has NINE players. I thought it was because Casey's denouement occurred in the NINEth inning.

The Simpsons is supposed to have an existential or even spiritual quality to it. Never cared for it.

"Visiting Vietnam, say: ABROAD". I needed perps here as that wasn't my experience. Now, visiting Greece, maybe.
There's only one TED At least for BoSox fans

Welcome to Write-up city, waseely. I did my weeks solving on Tuesday. I had to go back and try to figure out a pesky section of Saturday's XW yesterday. So, I tend to forget but I don't think I had trouble. I see a wo on ABUT, I think I inked EDGE.

I had fun with the"doubles", TED had A TON of them.

WC

D4E4H said...

Good morning Cornerites.

Thank you David Distenfeld for your enjoyable Thursday CW.

I FIR in 42:36 min.

Thank you waseeley for your excellent review.

Ðave 

D4E4H said...

C.C. thanks for posting my PIC, and for asking me to "Tell us why you start with a special Ð!"

When I worked CWs on paper, I could not tell my O from my D so I added a stroke to the vertical line of Ds.  One day I discovered the alt key, and there was my Ð.  I found Ð on Wiki.  It is known as "eth."

"On Microsoft Windows, eth can be typed using the alt code Alt+(0240) for lowercase or Alt+(0208) for uppercase,"  
ð and Ð.

Whoda thunk.

Ðave

waseeley said...

WC @4:43AM That's David TENANT, a very versatile British actor, probably best known for playing Dr Who in one of the post Sylvester McCoy regenerations. Tenant was also absolutely brilliant in the "Broadchurch" and "Deadwater Fell" series'.

It was admittedly an obscure pun, something I'll have to watch for as I venture further out on this ledge. And it was made even more obscure due the blog convention of separating answers with multiple words with spaces, which I didn't realize before starting the write-up. TANANT might have worked for a Dr Who reference (fairly common in Xwds), but TAN ANT was probably a stretch.

Anonymous said...

Took 8:14 for this one, and only clue I don't care for is the reveal, because as Waseely said, I don't expect to see most of those creatures in a park.

Evie and laten took awhile to get.

KS said...

Still do not get the theme. Ant park? Badger park? What am I missing here?

TTP said...





Thank you, David Distenfeld, and thank you, Bill.

Happy Birthday, Ð4E4H Ðave !

Two of the theme answers filled themselves in because of the perps. Took a bit of pondering to figure out what was going on with them. Knowing the animal's letters would be scrambled heped with the other theme answers so it was just a matter of getting the animal first The east side gave me trouble today until I finally realized MIXED MEDIA and corrected LEtME to LEMME.

Fun puzzle. Good challenge and I liked the unusual clues here and there. I esp. liked "Duck" for DODGE.

I always tried to watch The Tracey Ullman show and probably saw most episodes. I liked her humor and the skits. That's when I was first introduced to The Simpsons. Humor for children, and sometimes subtle, sometimes topical, sometimes Easter egg humor for the adults. Still funny after all these years. It is the longest-running animated American series, the longest running American sitcom, and the longest running scripted prime-time series.

A very nice debut, Bill ! Great job in pulling it altogether in time !

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Well done, Waseeley. So Rosemary's niece-in-law is actually George's wife. Who gnu? Got the theme at TERSE STEER and was off-and-running. I don't understand the "Park", either, unless we think of the double-words parked beside each other. Noticed the SIRI/SRI pairing. Wilbur, "this guy" is Doctor Who, as played by David Tennant (TAN ANT). Thanx, David (don't recognize the name, is this a debut?) and Waseeley (I know this is a debut).

MATT: The Simpsonshas been running for a long time -- 31 seasons at last count. Over the years, they have made some unCANNY predictions.

STRAP: Back in my HS days I drove Lorna Robenhagen home one snowy afternoon and got my 1953 Pontiac stuck in her driveway. (In my defense, it was a long, unpaved driveway.) Her mother came out to help push the "Green P" out of the rut. [Pop] "Oops, there went a bra STRAP." [Pop] "Oops, there goes the other one." But she did manage to get the car unstuck, and I thanked her for that.

RANT: Back on November 18th I ordered a pair of glasses from TSO. Hadn't heard a word since, so a few days ago I emailed 'em to see if they'd come in. No response. So yesterday I called to check on my order.
"Yes, your glasses are here. I see that we notified you on November 27th."
"How did you notify me?"
"Well, it's our automated system."
"I don't remember any phone call or voicemail message."
"Well, it's not a phone call...it's more like a text."
"To my landline?"
[Snicker] "Oops."
I'm finally headed that way this morning to pick up the glasses.
RANT OVER.

Mark said...

Getting TERSESTEER straight away helped with the theme to make this an easier than normal Thursday for me. Only issue was LEtME, so I decided the EXit might be the class struggle.

ATLGranny said...

Another FIR today! And another fun puzzle, thanks to David. Saw what was happening with TERSE STEER, and like DO figured DOUBLE PARK meant they were placed next to each other when I later read the reveal. It was interesting to see how many animals David found to use.

My grid had four WOs today: AbeL Clooney before I remembered George's wife, muDD before TODD, pOOPED POODLE before I saw I needed an L, and finally I had DOUBLE bAcK before perps cleared up that puzzlement. Well sometimes when you get LOST, you need to DOUBLE bAcK to find your way and you may be clueless! Anyway, many thanks to BILL on his debut for confirming my final answers. Good job and nice picture!

I got a cast on my wrist yesterday (it's a long story) but all is going well. Hope all goes well for you all today too and a very HBD to Dave4!

inanehiker said...

This theme came up quickly with the TERSE STEER so the theme answers were easier to solve from then on.
I didn't have issues with the PARK - I thought of zoos often being called zoological PARKs and all the animals have been found there.

Thanks to Bill for his debut blog and to David for his puzzle (also a debut?)

Dave with the special D - my junior high math teacher always put a little line halfway down the letter Z to distinguish it from a number 2 once we hit algebra with letters in the equations- and ever since I write my "Z"s the same way.

Hungry Mother said...

FIR without getting the theme, but I saw it after I was finished. I’ve been in Vietnam twice. I spent a couple of hours in Tan Son Nhut Air Base in 1963 on my way back to the States from Thailand. A couple of years ago, on a cruise, I toured Saigon and was amazed at how modern and thriving it was.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

I enjoyed the anagrammed animals. Didn't really get the PARK connection, though. But, no matter. The solve went quickly without error. FIR.
Meet the Press - Never watch it.

Congrats to Waseeley on his new gig. Good start.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning

I was very surprised to see a reveal because the theme was obvious and, IMO, would be better without one, especially one that seems ambiguous to many solvers. The only themer that brought a smile was Looped Poodle. My only w/o was Edge/Abut (Hi, Wilbur) and Laten caused a nose wrinkle.

Thanks, David, and if this is a debut, Congrats and thanks, Bill, for your fine debut. Welcome to the Blogging Business! I loved David Tennant in Broadchurch but his Scottish burr took very sharp ears and intense concentration to understand. There was an American version of the same story featuring him and Anna Gunn in the lead roles and he spoke without the accent and was perfectly understandable. It was set in California but I can’t remember the title. I saw that series first, then Broadchurch.

Dave, nice picture. How is Carol doing?

Have a great day.

Tinbeni said...

waseeley: Outstanding "First Write-up". Good job!

Well this was a FUN Thursday puzzle, though I did not catch the theme while solving.

That's why the write-up is so informative.

Fave today was 52-a, IPO ... something I did TWICE in my career.

It is back to being a 60+ degree, Sunny Florida day.
Time to wrap-up my Christmas Shopping.

A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.

Cheers!

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, David and waseeley. Congrats on your debut(s?).
I FIRed and saw the anagrammed animals early in the game. That certainly helped the solve and IMO the DOUBLE PARK reveal was a bit of a letdown (and yes IM, my nose wrinkled at LATEN).
Several inkblots to correct Elan to GLAM, LetME to LEMME, Want to WONT.

I noted more animals (not AMAL) today than just in the theme: SIRLOIN, Duck=DODGE, LAMB, SOW, (CORN)DOG. Not sure if BEE(GEE)S count!
I also noted SOW crossing WOW beside MOWER.
We also had ATE and BITE.

This Canadian knew nothing about the ELMs in Central Park. I thought they had been wiped out everywhere by disease. I LIUed and found "The elms stand tall (some over 90 feet) thanks to vigorous efforts on the part of the Central Park Conservancy."

Is it Dave4's Birthday? Greetings either way. And yes, how is Carol?
Wishing you all a great day.

CanadianEh! said...

waseeley and other bloggers: just a suggestion when blogging since this Canadian, and other readers I'm sure, do not always know what the initials stand for. Just a simple definition could prevent someone from having to look up or ask the question here.
ie. WPM= Words Per Minute
OSU= Ohio State University (yes, not all of us know the Big Ten schools!)
IPO= Initial Public Offering (stock market launch)
MCAT= Medical College Admission Test

Do others agree or would this be redundant?
Not meant to be a criticism, but just a suggestion.
I appreciate the work put into the blog write-up each day.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Happy birthday, Dave! I hope it's a good one for you.

Today half of the constructor's name was right, David but Poole was the surname. Sigh.

What a nice start with my neighbor city, MESA. I thought the same as ATLGranny that the words placed next to each other were DOUBLE PARKED.

FIW with IMO instead of IPO for Pinterest event. No idea.

Honey BADGER was an answer in Jeopardy last night.

CREPES and EGGS for breakfast today.

I love the BEEGEES! Some of their lyrics make good passwords.

One w/o, changing MEAN to PLAN and I need a new correction pen. It's almost out of fluid.

Thank you, waseely Bill

Have a fantastic day, everyone!

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Not too shabby as we approach the end of the week. One inkover: letme/LEMME (because what's an EXAt?)

Obvious anagram theme headed by TERSETSTEER. Ingenious but WOS, why DOUBLE PARKED with only one animal per answer? And add LATEN to the ired, elhi, etc junk-fill bin.

A TANANT is a biological impossibility. The clue specifically references rays (implying sun) so a spray on bronzer wouldn't count. Never heard of the APBIO sitcom (My HS BIO class was not exactly a barrel of pithed frogs). We have had PSATS, LSATS, finally MCATS, an examination for Vets specializing in feline health care

Links machine: golf cart wouldn't fit. TED talks are great NPR radio entertainment on long drives. But pay attention, my GPS lady starts shouting TURNAROUND, she knows I got LOST.

Agree with Bill..How can EDENS be "perfect places" with snakes hiding in the fruit trees? What did Eve learn from the Tree of Knowledge? Now she knows raw quince tastes awful. Grab an apple from the Tree of Life, give some to your BF, sharing is a virtue.

Bart Simpson was 10 in 1987 when he starred on Tracey Ulman's show ...makes him 43.

AMAhL Clooney's Night Visitors should be limited to just one, George.

We need MOWER not ____ Canadiens.....LES
Confused radio with TV _____ MIXED MEDIA
Yes, yes en français _____ WEEEEWE

Great daybiew Waseeley Bill.

Dave... In Europe a dash is often put thru the stem of the number 7 to distinguish it from the number 1.

Happy B D (can't add the eth from my keyboard, sorry)

Shankers said...

Great job waseeley on you rookie write-up. Got the theme right off the bat and FIR'd with few changes, letme to lemme for one. Laten was, yes IM, a nose wrinkler. My favorite was weeewe for sure. And as for Amal, she is absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-This fun puzzle’s LATEN joins this week’s RUER and COOER in our Cwd Glue section
-Rodent paving material just jumped into my head
-No TRIALS – In an ad I’ve heard a law firm claimed “Our specialty is to settle out of court”
-Food delivery service DoorDash’s IPO opened at $102.00 yesterday and closed at $189.51
-Anyone else think of Tommy (Once Frank Sinatra’s son-in-law) for “Pop singer ____ Sands”?
-TURN AROUND – Going across the median can look tempting
-Stanford is one college where COED means men and women can share a room not just the building
-Welcome Dave. I admire a man who jumps into blogging and has a wife who does the mowing! :-)
-Inane - This math guy uses the Z with a line through it in puzzles but can’t make it on my Mac

waseeley said...

TTP @6:57AM Thanks TTP. Couldn't have done it without your help.

waseeley said...

IM @9:12AM Thank you Miss. I'd suggest using subtitles for Brit shows. Just because they're speaking English doesn't mean they're scrutable.

CanadianEh! said...

Ray-O - “ We need MOWER not ____ Canadiens.....LES”
😁💕💕👍😁

NaomiZ said...

Welcome, waseeley! Nice job! I enjoyed the "doubled" animals in David's puzzle, and was not too surprised to find them in a DOUBLE PARK. A pretty quick and satisfying FIR. ¡Gracias a todos!

D4E4H said...

The reports of my demise are preposterous.
I'm alive and well, and in my 76th year that started on May 3third.

Thank you TTP at 6:57 AM and ATLGranny at 7:52 AM for your HBDY wishes.  Were they for 2020, 7 months late or 2021, 5 months early. If you wished me well after 7:58 AM, thank you also.

Thank you inanehiker at 7:58 AM for the "to Ƶ or not 2 be" story.  I found the "Z with stroke" on Wiki."

Then there is the ("7").  I give up. I looked forever for said ("7"). I finally found it, but it lost the cross mark in translation to the blog. C’est la ("7")

"Most people in Continental Europe, and some in Britain and Ireland as well as Latin America, write 7 with a line in the middle ("7"), sometimes with the top line crooked. The line through the middle is useful to clearly differentiate the digit from the digit one, as the two can appear similar when written in certain styles of handwriting."

Don't have a stroke. I have stroked the subject as much as possible.

Ah, the beautiful English language.

Ðave or Ƶave or ("7")ave

Misty said...

So glad the LA Times finally gave us the correct constructor for this morning's puzzle.
It was a lot of fun, many thanks, David, and welcome, if you're new here. And thanks for your commentary, Bill.

I loved seeing all the animals in this puzzle, but didn't get the anagram theme until I came to the blog. So I first had LOOPED BEAGLE, before it became LOOPED POODLE (much funnier). And GARBED BADGER was certainly a clever item.

Happy Birthday, Dave. How nice that C.C. posted your picture.

Have a great day, everybody!

Shankers said...

D4E4H, you are 2 1/2 months my elder. Wasn't '44 a great time to be born?

desper-otto said...

Ray-O, they've got silver ants in the Sahara, so why not Tan ones?

I always strike my zeros (ø is as close as I can find) to differentiate them from Os.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks David for the fun Thursday grid; theme helped with the BADGER and undoing the LOOsE POODLE.

Excellent debut Waseeley. As it turns out, I do have a Sonic Screwdriver.

WOs: TTP, you and I had the same issues in the NE - LEtME. I also had eeks, E before I in YEILDS, and the aforementioned LOOsE dog.
ESPs: ING, oh, IN G. MCATS - I kinda knew it but (*Googles*) Medical College Admission Test is not really in my vernacular. //C, Eh! - I agree; spell out the TLAs (Three (er, Four) Letter Acronyms)
Fav: BEN Folds Five //anyone read his book?. I started it but - Squirrel!

Anyone remember MATT Groening's Life in Hell?. I recall some of his comics taped to professors' doors in the EE department.

Nice pic Ð4.
Inanehiker - I too cross my Zeds; and 'stroke' my 7s, Ray-O.

D-O: LOL Texting your land-line. #Assumptions

IM - *Googles*... Gracepoint?

ATLGranny - Oh no! How bad is your wrist?

Anyone else think of Bonnie Tyler at TURN AROUND? [Total Eclipse of the Heart - 4:30] No? Maybe that's why DW says there's something wrong w/ my brain...

HG - I got an email yesterday (day before?) from DoorDash re: IPO. Seems founder's mother was a Dr. in China but wasn't allowed to practice in US so she took on 3 jobs - one in a restaurant where the founder worked as a dishwasher. His mother finally had enough $$ to open her own restaurant and that's when he 'invented' Door Dash. Don't know how true it is but it's touching. Oh, and we had DoorDash deliver Korean BBQ last night. Yummers.

(My) last meeting of the day is in 5 minutes and then I'm taking the '86 Alfa out for a spin - I think it will start now :-)

Cheers, -T

TTP said...



Bill, you are welcome. A team effort though as you said in your close.


Ð4E4H Ðave, I am afraid I misread C.C.'s note, and led ATLGranny astray. Just consider them extra birthday wishes this year.

Plus, Husker Gary gave you credit for blogging the puzzle, so you are getting all kinds of extras today.

I think it was pretty clear he meant Bill. He was probably rushing to get back out to the golf course again today !

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

DO...re: TANANT...as a static color u r correct. But the clue "Insect that caught some rays" indicates developing the color from exposure to the sun. 🐜

AnonymousPVX said...


Ok, I take guitar lessons, part of my “whatever I can do to keep my brain working” regimen...not so I can play at coffeehouses, haha.

So G is NOT the same as A flat...C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C....going up the scale.

Going down the scale...................C, B, Bb, A, Ab, G, Gb, F, E, Eb, D, Db, C.


Nice Thursday puzzle, but I gotta go now, it’s starting to laten. And “laten” has the red underscore.

billocohoes said...

Not just archeologists. The Roman-Jewish historian Josephus and the Dead Sea Scrolls say Goliath was four cubits and a span (6'10"). Only later texts say six cubits and a span (9'9".) I know which I'd believe. And the cubit was pretty variable depending on if it were an Egyptian or Greek cubit.

Not that it makes any difference to the point of the story.

CrossEyedDave said...

Having the "o" and "e" in the golf machine clue
Sidetracked me, as I kept trying to name that thingie
They use to cut and move around the cup (or hole)
On the green every couple of days.

Holer?

No, mower...

But I was still sidetracked as my BIL built a putting green
In his back yard, and even had the special mower needed to
Crewcut the grass extra short.
There must be a special name for this thingie...

CrossEyedDave said...

Congrats Waseely on your debut,
& I appreciate your honesty on not knowing
What "park" has to do with the theme, because,
Quite honestly, I don't get it either...
Some one said because the anagram is parked next to the animal?
Pls tell me this is not so, there has got to be a better reason for "park."
I do hope the constructor will drop in and elucidate.

HG, I don't remember the guitar strap story.
Can you repeat it? (I need a laugh...)

What? It's not dehe4s(sorry D4E4Hs) birthday?
Aw nuts!
I had a cake ready and everything...

Hmm,
Duck clued for dodge seems to
jog a memory also...

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Goliath likely suffered from hormonal Giantism with an overproduction of growth hormone from a pituitary tumor at the skull base obscuring peripheral vision. He couldn't see the stone aimed at his forehead

He wasn't killed by the stone but the fall from the beanstalk David cut down...wait..sorry...wrong story.

Jayce said...

Interesting theme. I enjoyed it. Nice write-up, waseeley.

Spitzboov said...

Both G# and Ab are listed on several sources with the same frequency ie: 415.30Hz. So why are they not the same?

Forgot to wish Đ a Happy Birthday.

CrossEyedDave said...

I always thought G# and Ab were different
Because they were from different keys.
But, for an academic discussion, (with video)
here ya go..

Wilbur Charles said...

If Ray I Sunshine doesn't know tanning then who does. Of course if your mothers sister comes from the beach...

But in Boston we say "The aunt's aren't ants.

WC

Spitzboov said...

CED @ 1518 - - Guess I was thinking of the single note in isolation. Same key on a piano or accordion.

CrossEyedDave said...

Spitzboov,

I am glad that "resolved" your question,
But I just watched both videos,
and I am still confused...

Husker Gary said...

Hi CED!

Here's the STRAP story:

40. Guitar attachment: STRAP - One of mine broke when I was singing for a candlelight Christmas time wedding and the guitar hit the floor with a thump. Everyone looked at me with mouths AGAPE (Hey, I used that word!). What did I do? I picked up the instrument and sang two more songs with two broken strings and the others out of tune. Waddaya gonna do? The bride and I still laugh about it 40 years later.

Husker Gary said...

Dang,

I should have put Bill and not Dave! Uh, the sun got in my eyes!

I was going to play today as the temp got up to 50F but our great neighbors both tested positive for COVID and so we were good samaritans for them today. It feels so good to have neighbors you absolutely rely on and completely trust (we have a key to their house and know their garage door code).

I had to go to play at a really bad but picturesque course up on the Platte River bluff yesterday. I called up and couldn't get on my home course and the manager sent me a picture of the parking lot which as full as I have ever seen it. I'm glad they were doing fine.

The wind is coming up right now and strong winds and snow will be featured in our weather tomorrow.

Irish Miss said...

Bill W at 10:27 ~ I think I have used the Closed Captions feature a few times, but I find it distracts me from what’s actually going on in the scene, visually. I experienced this same issue recently, while watching The Trouble With Maggie Cole. Aside from the accents, the rapid,machine-gun-speed of delivery adds to the difficulty.

Anon T @ 12:54 ~ Yes, it was Gracepoint, thanks for reminding me. (I received that same email from Door Dash and I also had a delivery from them, not Korean BBQ, though, Veal Mustarde!)

CrossEyedDave said...

Thanks HG!
No I did not hear that story.
Sounds like a good memory...

However, it reminds me of one of my 1st gigs
On the stage of combo gym/auditorium
In a Church.

The electric plugs were in the stage floor,
& in the middle of a song, my Amp just died!

Well, I am cussing up a blue streak
The like of which would embarrass some sailors,
When I realize it is dead quiet,
The priest is staring at me with a dirty look,
(And his mouth "agape.")
And I turn around to discover,
I had kicked out my own plug....

I plugged it back in red faced & kept on going.
(Whattaya gonna do?)

Also,
For New Blog readers,
you may not want to ask me music questions...

Anonymous T said...

CED - LOL Duck Dodgers! And, don't sell yourself short - I know you play guitar (my instrument is the stereo).

IM - Whoot! I got something right today :-)

Well, I had to wait for Youngest to get back from coffee / social-distance study-group to finally turn-over the Alfa (50A from the charger finally did it!). She now knows how to disconnect cables from a battery. We had a nice ride and cops didn't pull me over (I forgot to renew registration last year).

HG - You're getting snow and we're getting rain. So much for another spin around the neighborhood tomorrow.

Looks like I used the wrong link in my first link. I meant [Wiki].

Cheers, -T

Jayce said...

The clue reads "Having one sharp." This means a musical piece in the key of G major, which has one sharp, namely F sharp.

Michael said...

I'd like to second C-Eh's motion of 9:45 AM. It's becoming quite difficult to keep track of the 'abundance' of abbreviations -- does "AA" mean 'anti-aircraft' or 'Alcoholics Anonymous' or ?? And that's only a 2-letter example.

Spell it out if it'll be helpful, please -- we all know a lot, but it's not always the same lot!

D4E4H said...

Irish Miss at 9:12 AM wrote "Dave, nice picture. How is Carol doing?"

I'll address your polite lie first.  "Nice picture?"  I don't even know who that man is.  I'm 18 years old and handsome.

Now to answer your query, she feels better than she did before her gut problem.  She has been eager to return home ever since coming to Rehab on 11-30.  She left here on 11-22.

For Medicare to pay for her stay the Rehab must submit to them a 44 page report, a Minimum Data Set (MDS).  Once that is submitted they may kick her out. 

She will be isolated for 10 days when she gets here.  Then it is back to life as abnormal.

Ðave   

Michael said...

(1) FWIW, the characters "Ð ᵭ” are also the capital and lower case letters ‘d’ in Vietnamese “Quoc-Ngu”. I offer TMI: "Considering that Vietnam has been an independent nation for a thousand years, Quoc ngu has a surprisingly brief history. The system was developed by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century. The earliest extant dictionary using quoc ngu was the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, published by Alexandre de Rhodes in 1651. Rhodes, who was French, relied heavily on earlier Portuguese dictionaries in compiling his work.

"Quoc ngu was largely neglected until the 19th century when it was taken up by the French colonial government as a means of breaking the grip of Chinese culture and fostering Western ways of thinking. Despite its colonial background, the simplicity and ease of use of quoc ngu resulted in its gradual spread until it was finally chosen as the official Vietnamese script in the 20th century."

(2) The use of slashes to distinguish between ‘z’, ‘7’, and ‘2’, between ‘O’ and ‘0’, between ‘1’ and ‘I’ originated in the days when manual Morse code was universally used to send messages. Top speeds for keying texts were over 50 5-letter words a minute, so writing these down by hand was a hasty business, and it was easy to confuse, say, a hurriedly scribbled O for a 0; hence Ø.

(3) The Ƶ and ƶ characters do exist, but not in a readily-accessible way, in current Macintosh — and I presume, Windows alphabets.

waseeley said...

@5:19 D4E4H said “Thank you, David Distenfeld” and I second the motion. This was a great puzzle and a pleasure to pun on (and on, yada, yada, yada).

And thank you D4E4H for the kind words and Happy Extra Birthday! I did the math on your handle and discovered that “D4E4H” is hexadecimal notation for the characters “MU”. All you have to do to make MUSIC on the blog would be to append “E2C9C3”. Don’t know what key it’d be in, but ask Jayce @4:30pm, he'd probably know.

And back at ya D-O, ATLGranny (and may you heal quickly), inanehiker, Spitzboov, Irish Miss, Tinbeni, CanadianEh (I’ll add decoding of acronyms to my routine, easy to do), Lucina, NaomiZ, Misty, Dash T (I should have guessed – what do you use the damn thing for?), AnonymousPVX (and thanks for picking me up after I fell FLAT – at least it wasn’t on a SHARP object), CrossEyedDave, Jayce; and to anyone I missed, or who came late to the party – gotta go make dinner.

And thanks to Ray-o @9:57AM, especially for his “Raykus”. Loved your naughty ode to everyone’s favorite seasonal operetta. Keep ‘em coming Ray, they’re not at all Menottinous. And praying that Dw and Dd are continuing to mend.

Husker G, @10:07 AM I do have to cook dinner on those days. Oh and don’t worry about the spelling of my name, people’s creativity in that area is boundless.

Michael @4:38 Acronyms are a pain, particularly nested acronyms, relatively common in the IT field, e.g. TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol. I’ve been on a life long quest for one nested to three levels. CSO to anyone out there who knows one.

A standup always dreads a gig with a tough crowd. Cornerites are a great crowd and the most interesting and unique community I’ve ever encountered!

Bill

Jamie said...

Afraid I may be a bit late to the blog, but at least I made it today! Enjoyed the puzzle, especially the anagrammed animals. waseeley, thanks for the great writeup (and the chance to look at David Tennant, whose spiky-haired charm I admit still has its effect on me... although my Dr Who crush is actually his onetime predecessor, blue-eyed romantic Paul McGann... a good consonant-rich name, I'm surprised we don't see it in crosswords!).

LEO III said...

Daily double for me today: I had a DNF, along with some outright wrong answers. Got most of the theme answers. Did not see the anagrams, which kept me from getting GARBEDBADGER. Got the reveal.

Had to work today. We weren't any busier than usual, but I really didn't have time to stare at the puzzle as much as usual. Haven't had time to read any of your comments, and I have to work tomorrow too, so I'm going to go get some sleep.

Oh, what made me maddest today was that I was out on the ramp this afternoon, and the Houston Rockets taxied by on their new ride. They were heading to Chicago to play the Bulls tomorrow night in their pre-season opener. (Wonder how long it will be before Covid shuts down roundball again?)

I had neither my cell phone nor my camera out there with me, so no photo. Harrumph! Not to worry: It's gonna be a long season (maybe), so I'll get plenty of shots of their comings and goings.

That's it for now. I'll be up again in too few hours. Probably get to start on the Friday puzzle around 0300.

Anonymous T said...

waseeley - re: Sonic Screwdriver: It makes a noise and the lights just go back and forth and blink[Airplane II @1:44]

GNU == GNU Not Unix == GNU Not Unix Not Unix ==....

Leo3 - Think Harden is going to stay? I was reading today that it's not likely. How the Rockets lose our best guys b/f going Clutch City again...(? Oy!)

Jamie - You and my kids (Srs in College & HS) would likely get along quite well. They have toy Tardi(?plural?), the Sonic Screwdriver (pictured earlier) is actually Youngest's [*impishly hangs head in shame*], Dr. Who trading cards, posters of Tennant, and all the other nerdy stuff. Yes, I'm a bad influence :-)

Cheers, -T

waseeley said...

While GNU does consist of nested acronyms, each level is the same. I'm looking for heterogeneous levels. E.g. if TCP/IP explodes to Transmission Control Protocol over IP, then if IP, instead of exploding to Internet Protocol, exploded to Internet PGP (made this one up).

The only DW chatchkas I have are pre-Sylvester McCoy, e.g. a tiny toy K9 that my son brought back from a trip to London.

Spitzboov said...

LATEN - What are the odds that both the LAT and WSJ would have the same lame word on the same day?

Ol' Man Keith said...

How do you make a D-with-a-slash on a straight Mac KB?
There's no Alt key here, and I can't get beyond a lower case "eth," or "∂."
And doesn't the phonetic "eth" take a different pronunciation than the English D?
~ OMK

Anonymous T said...

Ð4 - Good news re: Carol. Soon my friend; soon.
//Pop always says "I don't know who this old guy in the mirror is; I'm 25 and ready to Disco [BEEGEES Documentary Promo -- and there's something wrong w/ the old man :-)]

OMK -- Ð will get you the Ð

Michael - I do appreciate the slash treatise. I have no idea where I picked up crossing Zeds, 7s and slashing aughts.

waseeley - Go to p. 26 [NASA] and you will see nested... //actually, read the whole thing - it's kinda funny.

Cheers, -T

The Curmudgeon said...

Re: laten (from Merriam-Webster)
laten verb
lat·​en | \ ˈlā-tᵊn \
latened; latening\ ˈlāt-​niŋ , ˈlā-​tᵊn-​iŋ \
Definition of laten
intransitive verb
: to grow late
transitive verb
: to cause to grow late
First Known Use of laten
1860, in the meaning defined at transitive sense


Stop complaining about the legitimate use of common English prefixes!

>> Roy

The Curmudgeon said...

and suffixes!

Ol' Man Keith said...

&ETH
Nope. Didn't work.

&∂
That didn't work either.
~ OMK

Anonymous T said...

OMK - you need a ; after the ETH for the HTML to take. -T